The Cleveland County team travelled to Swindon for the first match of the new season against Wiltshire in the National Division Three programme.

After just missing out on promotion last season, Cleveland were in determined mood and they started with a hard-fought draw in the West Country.

In the B matches, the Ladies got Cleveland off to a great start.

Making her county debut with a lady of the match display was Shirley Witten (18.09), who won 3-2. This was followed by wins for Jean Atkinson (13.07) 3-0, Molly Pywell (14.42) 3-1, Marjorie Gunn (13.70) 3-2 and Rhonda Page (13.04) 3-2. But Barbara Bradley (12.49) lost 3-1 to give Cleveland a 5-1 lead going into the men's B matches.

Adie Welsh (19.68) lost 3-0 on his county debut before Colin Foxton (19.12) levelled with a 3-1 win.

But then Bob Cowley lost 3-1, Glynn Neads (20.27) lost 3-0 and John Peoples (19.54) was beaten 3-1. Allan Galley (20.98) pulled one back when he won 3-2 before Mark Stephenson (21.57) lost 3-0. Paul Skelton (21.58) won 3-1 and man of the match Jim Dunlop (24.63) won 3-1. The last three matches in the section all went to the home side with Dennis Coleman (20.73) and Peter Maw (22.59) losing 3-1 and Neil Young (25.75) going down 3-0.

Wiltshire won the section 8-4 to tie things at nine apiece.

The second day of competition started with the Ladies A team games and the girls did the county proud yet again.

Karen Helmore (19.01) won 3-1, Babs Evans (19.03) won 3-0 and Vee Page (18.40) won a very hard match with an excellent 111 checkout.

An out-of-sorts Jean Hagan (15.06) lost 3-0 but Pat J Smith (17.18) won 3-2 and lady of the match Gail Carhart (21.19) contributed a super 3-1 success to give the ladies a 5-1 section win and earn Cleveland a 14-10 overall lead.

And so it was left to the Men's A team to complete the match.

Things didn't start well with Richie Corner (24.13) losing 3-1 but Simon Craven (25.44) pulled it back level with a 3-1 triumph.

Carl Smith (20.32) lost 3-0 but back came Cleveland again with Steve Robinson (21.82) winning 3-1, Peter Humphrey (24.64) earning a 3-0 win and man of the match Glen Durrant (26.77) winning 3-2.

At 18-12 ahead with just six games left, Cleveland looked to be odds-on winners at this stage.

But Wiltshire had other ideas and Jim Bannister (24.24) lost 3-2 thanks to some missed doubles, Tony Mitchell (23.72) went down 3-1, Kenny Dobson (24.27) lost 3-0 while Paul Winspear (22.82), Mark Eccles (23.51) and Gary Stephens (25.04) were all on the wrong end of 3-1 scorelines.

That was enough to give Wiltshire an 8-4 section win while the overall score was tied at 18 points apiece.

Things were just as tight just about everywhere in national division three, with the other results being: